The novel methodology developed by Mochales-Riaño & Barroso et al. (in press) for experimentally obtaining thermal exchange rates of small lizards through the use of radiometric videos, underpinned the need to devise a thermal video processing protocol to standardize this data collection. This protocol addresses this need as it represents a subsequently optimized version of the processing pipeline used for the aforementioned proof-of-concept study.

This protocol was used to successfully obtain temperature data from several body parts from thermoregulating lizards, enabling internal body temperature to be inferred (as per Barroso et al., 2016 and 2020), as well as providing insights into thermal exchange rates and the patterns of regional heterothermy and temperature redistribution in these animals.

So far, variants of this video analysis protocol have been successfully deployed in several ongoing research projects, on several species of lizards.

Illustrated Protocol for Processing Radiometric Videos Using the Software FLIR Tools.pdf